is it unheard of people moving to PE aftermore than 2 years?

I have seen senior management in IB and analyst/associates moving to PE, but not a lot of transition in between. is there a reason a VP wouldn't/couldnt move to PE? or do people only like it when they are analysts so they can train them?

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Not unheard of, but rarer. As you progress in either banking/PE the job functions, while similar, start to diverge. There is something to be said for having an investor's mindset as well as learning how PE firms operate, do deals, manage portcos, etc. At the PE VP level and above the skillset is more of a balance between sourcing, managing a deal process, working with the portcos, etc. While someone from banking could theoretically step into that role and generally know how to do it having seen the process from the other side, a PE firm would be better off by either hiring someone laterally or promoting a senior associate. Someone who has 2 years of PE experience would just know how to do things faster than someone in banking.

The reason PE firms generally hire analysts after a couple of years is because they are well trained at all the gruntwork required so excel/ppt and then they can be molded early into the firms's ways of thinking about deals, doing deals, etc. Banking has its own deal processes which obviously revolve more around pitching and selling. 

In general, the better the bank you come from and the more exposure you have to M&A and deal processes, the better chance you'll have at switching. Also, if you happen to be in a very specialized group, that could help you as well if you're going into a niche PE firm. That's part of the reason why it generally makes sense to leave banking for PE for a few years as its much easier to go back to banking versus transition later on.

 

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